Above All Else, a Writer Must Have Faith
If you meet seasoned writers who tell you that they don’t believe in writer’s block, be skeptical!
Writer’s block is a very real phenomenon. As humans, the most powerful tool we have is our minds, which — let’s be honest — can make us believe just about anything.
Even though I have been writing and journaling consistently since I was eight years old, I still have problems with writer’s block. Take today, for example. I want to write this post but have been staring at my computer screen for almost an hour, trying to figure out what to write next.
Writer’s block never really goes away, for me anyway, and it can happen for any number of reasons. Typically, I find that writer’s block results from allowing external opinions or circumstances interfere with our writing practice.
This is a lesson I have had to learn over and over again, starting most memorably fifteen years ago when I decided to put writing first after finding inspiration and my voice while completing Julia Cameron’s creative unblocking course The Artist’s Way. The course was a revelation to me, and I got serious about my craft as a fiction writer and poet and applied to MFA programs in creative writing. I didn’t get accepted. I was devastated. I stopped writing for awhile but eventually took a creative writing course at my local community college and found the will to continue.
After working consistently on my craft for another three years, I got accepted to the MFA program at Columbia College in Chicago. I was ecstatic! FINALLY, I was going to earn the terminal degree that told the world I was a writer. The only problem? It didn’t work out.
Continue reading “Overcoming Writer’s Block: My Journey as a Writer”
Okay, I admit it: I am writing this blog post for myself today, just as much as I am writing it for all of you, my lovely audience. Why? Because even though I have made a career out of writing, there are still plenty of days when I doubt my own abilities and talents, and I recognize the need to talk myself back into what I know, based on the hard lessons about writing and life that I need to learn and re-learn.
Today is one such day. While journaling this morning, I kept thinking about how uncomplicated my life would be if I could only stick to my blog on web development. I mean, as a career, it makes good money, and so does my blog on the topic! So I go back to developing websites, only to sneak off and work on a novel or screenplay in progress when I should be blogging about “The Best JavaScript Courses of 2018” or piloting a new course on the Python programming language. Continue reading “5 Ways to Stop Sabotaging Your Writing Dreams”
Sometimes writing is fun, but anyone who writes on a regular basis also knows that it can be difficult, even when we’re excited about our particular writing project.
For me, two of the biggest problems when I’m writing a novel are avoiding boredom and staying focused. The issues are a bit counter intuitive since each requires a different solution. After years if experimenting, I started to pay attention to what specifically worked well for me, and so today I am going to share with you the best tips I know for how to stay focused when writing. Continue reading “5 Tips on How to Stay Focused When Writing a Novel”
My mission is to help as many writers and artists generate income through blogging by building a business that is aligned with their values so that they have time to do what they love: create! One of the ways I have been able to do this for myself is by earning affiliate commission on my website You Can Learn How to Code.
Basically, I recommend courses and other services that have worked well for me and allowed me to become a competent web developer. That means if visitors click on one of the links on that website and purchase a product or service, I might receive a commission at no extra cost to them. And since Laura Henry Writes is also part of my business, I use affiliate links on this website, too.
Building my business with integrity is important to me, so I only recommend products and services that I have used and enjoyed, found helpful, or helped contribute to my livelihood as a blogger, writer, and business owner. I have tried many products and services over the years to help me monetize my blogs. Many of them were not worth the cost.
So, after trying out a number of things that didn’t work, I can recommend the very best products and services that have worked for me. My hope is that these resources will work well for you, too, and that they help you cut down the time it will take to build a business that you love. If you have any questions about them, please feel free to leave a comment below or contact me at laura@laurahenrywrites.com.
Most of my websites are now hosted through Wealthy Affiliate. If you are not technically minded and find the idea of building your own website daunting, there is training included that walks you through the entire process of getting your blog up and running. Training also includes lessons on how to monetize your blog so that you can start earning some money by recommending products that you love.
The Wealthy Affiliate membership also includes access to a community of supportive entrepreneurs. Some members of the community are just getting their businesses started, others have built 6- and 7-figure online empires, and others like me are somewhere in between.
If your dream is to work for yourself and build a business you’ll love so that you have more time to write and create, then . Prior to joining, I spent seven years trying to learn how to make money online but without any success. Within 18 months of joining Wealthy Affiliate, I got my first sale and have been scaling up ever since! Most members who blog consistently can achieve their first sale much sooner, especially if they don’t quit for six months like I did!
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner earns a 7-figure income through her website, so when I discovered that she also teaches a course on affiliate marketing, I purchased it, and I’m so glad I did. I technically didn’t need it since I have all the education I need through Wealty Affiliate, but Michelle’s course on how to generate revenue through Pinterest is worth the cost of the course alone. I credit this course for helping me set up my Pinterest strategy since I was missing out on opportunities there before.
If you are a technically-minded do-it-yourselfer and don’t need instructions on how to set up your own website and Google Analytics platform, then Michelle’s course Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing will serve you just fine since it covers most of what you need to know, minus the details and the systems of setting up your website. If you’re looking for more, want to learn affiliate marketing with others in a community, and get the exact systems that I use to create my blogs, then I would recommend Wealthy Affiliate.
My favorite platform for online creative writing courses is, by far, Masterclass. These classes are set up as online courses that allow you to complete projects led by artists and writers who are at the top of their game. The courses are structured into multiple lessons, which consist of a video with the instructor or “master” followed by an exercise or assignment. By the end of the class, you have the tools you need to finish your project, whether you’re trying to write a screenplay, television pilot, novel or nonfiction book.
The nice thing is that Masterclass isn’t just limited to writers. There are cooking courses with chefs like Thomas Keller and Wolfgang Puck, singing lessons with Christina Aguilera, a photography course with Annie Leibovitz, and many more.
To date, I have taken Masterclass courses with Shonda Rhimes, James Patterson, and Malcolm Gladwell, among others. My subscription is set up with an all-access pass that allows me to take any course I want, though if there is one specific course you want to take, you can also purchase individual courses. If you’d like to take more than one course, though, the pricing works out that purchasing an all-access pass is worth your while.
Out of all the courses I’ve taken, my favorite one is Writing for Television with Shonda Rhimes. Listening to her, it is evident as to why she has been so successful. Towards the end of the course, I learned that she has an unshakable belief in her own abilities to accomplish whatever it is she desires to do. As artists and writers, we must all learn to develop that same level of inner faith within ourselves, and I started to become better at that after listening to Shonda Rhimes.
I hope you enjoy these courses as much as I have. They have all added to my life in innumerable ways. Through Wealthy Affiliate and Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing, I learned the skills I needed to build profitable blogs. And through the online creative writing courses at Masterclass, I have learned how to further hone my craft as a writer.
As writers and artists, we often make things harder on ourselves than we need to and allow distractions to interfere with our writing and our art. There are, however, legitimate times in our lives when we have serious concerns or matters to attend to that draw our energy and attention away from our creative pursuits. At some point, though, it is important to recognize when we have allowed ourselves to stray too far from creating the work that is in integrity with who we are.
In some ways, I feel like my 30’s were my lost years. By the time I was in my early thirties, I had completed my graduate degree in creative writing and lost my father to cancer. Both events had a profound effect on my writing life for longer than was necessary. In an attempt to clear some current resistance I have with progressing with my novel and help those of you who are encountering similar difficulties, I am, today, sharing my writer’s regrets. Continue reading “One Writer’s Regrets”
Recently, I was on vacation in New York City and discovered a book in the NYU bookstore that I was really excited about. It is Jonannah Negron’s How to Be an Artist. I saw the book and just knew I had to have it. Usually when I get a feeling about a book, it’s dead right. My intuition was right on this book, too, except for one thing: Negron says that all artists need day jobs.
That really bothered me because she is assuming that you can have EITHER your art OR your freedom. But what if you want both? Do you really need to choose?
NO! One hundred times over. No. You don’t need to choose. As an artist, you CAN have both. Continue reading “How to Earn Money Doing What You Love”